Austrian also won signing of the season and players’ player of the season at Hammers’ awards night

West Ham United's Declan Rice won the club's young player of the season award (pic: Nick Potts/PA)

Marko Arnautovic paid tribute to the West Ham United fans after winning the Hammer of the Year award.

The Austria international, who arrived in east London from Premier League rivals Stoke City last summer, took home the award after polling an impressive 68 per cent of the vote.

Teenager Declan Rice came second, with Pablo Zabaleta, who joined from Manchester City on a free transfer last summer, third.

Arnautovic’s displays for West Ham since David Moyes arrived have been nothing short of exceptional, with the 29-year-old having scored all 10 if his Hammers goals under the Scot.

Moyes has transformed the Austrian into a striker and Arnuatovic has enjoyed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes with West Ham, having been sent off in his second game for the club at Southampton in August.

Arnautovic is now one of the, if not the, first names on the team for the Hammers and the former Inter Milan man was honoured to take home the Hammer of the Year award.

“This award that I have received today, I am very happy and very proud,” Arnautovic told the club website.

“I want to keep doing my job for this club because I came here to do my job and everybody has seen what I can do and that I’m very happy to be here and I want to keep doing it.

“I want to thank every single fan who supports West Ham for this award. It means a lot to me.

“It was hard for me at the beginning of the season, but now it’s going well and I want to do my job for many years to come. We are not finished yet.

“I try to do my best. The gaffer gave me some advice which was to run hard and do my best and I did it.

“All the players helped me. I love them and they love me - you can hear this!

As well as being named Hammer of the Year, Arnautovic also collected the awards for signing of the season and players’ player of the season.

Rice won the young player of the season prize, while the Dylan Tombides Award went to Conor Coventry.

Pedro Obiang won goal of the season for his stunning strike at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League, Ellie Zoepf was named women’s player of the year and Ken Brown was honoured with the lifetime achievement.